Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. Record Lennon-McCartney Album
by Best Classic Bands Staff
Davis Jr. and McCoo in 2021 (Photo: Darren Stone; used with permission)
Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr., founding members and lead singers of the original 5th Dimension, are releasing an album of John Lennon and Paul McCartney covers, their first studio album in three decades. Several songs from Blackbird: Lennon-McCartney Icons have already been released; listen to them below. The album, featuring new recordings of Beatles songs as well as new versions of favorites of Lennon and McCartney solo material, arrived April 30, 2021, via BMG.
Listen to many of the songs below.
Blackbird: Lennon-McCartney Icons, produced by Nic Mendoza, is inspired by the turbulent and tragic experiences of lives lost in the ongoing struggle for human rights and equality.
Listen to Davis Jr.’s unique take of “Help!”
With the 5th Dimension, McCoo & Davis Jr. earned seven Top 10 singles including “Up, Up and Away,” “Wedding Bell Blues” and “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In,” a Grammy Award winner for Record of the Year.
Related: The #1 singles of 1969
The couple were the first Black married stars of a musical variety television program, The Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. Show, for CBS in 1977. The pair are recognized as the first couple of pop & soul, with more hours and years of broadcast television than any other married African-American duo.
Listen to their recording of “Blackbird”
McCoo hosted television’s Solid Gold for many years, with Davis Jr. as a regular guest star. McCoo turns 78 on Sept. 30. Davis will turn 83 on June 26. The seven-time Grammy winners were married on July 26, 1969.
Watch the lyric video for “Ticket to Ride,” a tribute to Rosa Parks
Blackbird: Lennon-McCartney Icons Track Listing
Got To Get You Into My Life (feat. Yancyy)
The Fool On the Hill (feat. Natalie Hanna Mendoza)
Blackbird
Yesterday
Ticket to Ride
The Long and Winding Road
Silly Love Songs
Help!
(Just Like) Starting Over (feat. James Gadson)
And I Love Her
Listen to “Silly Love Songs”
And here’s their cover of Lennon’s “(Just Like) Starting Over”
- James Taylor Announces 2025 Tour - 12/11/2024
- Remember David Gates, Who Led the ’70s Group Bread? - 12/11/2024
- Ringo Starr Celebrates Upcoming Country Album With Some of Rock’s Biggest Stars - 12/11/2024
4 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationI have loved the 5th Dimension’s Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr, since I was a little girl. My family harmonized singing lots of their music. I will continue to purchase their music and follow their progress. Many blessings wished for you two.
I met them in the early 60s. I was a young black boy during Segregation at a Gas Station all alone in Perry Florida. They asked me why I was up there. They gave me some money and they kindly told me to go home before something happened to me. I am now 70 years old and I still remember kindness.
What a nice comeback….Both songs are really good. “Blackbird” in particular, is sung with passion over a great orchestra arrangement. A unique recording…a beauty
Love you guys , you make a lovely couple , been a big 5th dimension fan since I was a kid around 1969, greetings from England